I’m glad everyone shared Part 1 and were so understanding of my words in Part 1 of the Wekfest LA photos. It was honestly a bit surprising how much it was shared but I suppose people have had a lot of similar thoughts on the subject. As our automotive community has evolved, it’s important to recognize that some of the old ways need to change or see a similar type of evolution. If you prefer the traditional points-based system of judging at car shows, that’s perfectly okay. I am in no way trying to sway anyone into not attending other events that use this method. What I’m doing is merely trying to get people to understand that what we do may not be necessarily ‘conventional’. It just works better for us. Being openly objective allows for enthusiasts to present their cars to us without having to be confined to, in our opinion, a rigid structure. Our requirements at Wekfest are based on numbers or categories. We are much more free-flowing, looking at overall execution, understanding of flow and style, quality parts selection, with more emphasis on themes…

Many times, the same custom car builds that win at these point-based shows will win at a Wekfest event. Being that many of us are older and were a part of that era, we know what it takes to score high at those shows. We just don’t look at the score. If a car is built well and executed to a high-level, we recognize it. Again, we have the experience and know-how to fully understand a quality car. If you can win at events with both styles of judging, then you know you have crafted something spectacular. At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong way. It all comes down to a different method of thinking. A difference of opinion if you will. What it comes down to is preference…

With evolution and growth comes new, different, ways of thinking. You’re still allowed to subscribe to whatever you feel works…

Many of us at Wekfest came from a time when judges used to stick their fingers under the wheel well of exhibiting show cars to see if the car was dirty. If those fingers had any type of filth on it, you automatically would get points deducted. The definition of what was “clean” was very literal. That concept was so engrained in my brain that even to this day, I still take a microfiber and clean the edges of my fenders. IT HAS TO BE CLEAN, lol. You couldn’t do that today with a majority of these show cars because I guarantee you that 90% of them would be dirty. Either that or you’d cut your fingers open because a bulk of these cars have trimmed fenders or cut-up quarter panels for over-fenders…

What a strange time it was back then…

Hell, what a strange time we live in now…

Even with all this talk of car show judging, points, no points, objectivity, whatever. Does it really matter? To those who are competitive, obviously you’re there to win. And I can respect that. I personally am not so invested in the idea of competition in that regard. One of my favorite things to see at a Wekfest event these days is when I walk-up to a car, grab its judging sheet and all it says is;

“I don’t care about judging, I’m only here to enjoy the show. Thank you!”

That always brings a smile to my face and it happens more often then you’d think. Not only does it make my job easier, I feel joy when I see those types of messages because I would do the same thing. I’m just there to take photos, enjoy the vibes, and spend time with my friends. Being acknowledged in that way by car show judges is nice, I will admit, but it doesn’t affect the quality of my day. That’s not why I’m there. I’m not chasing anything but a good time…

Again, I must reiterate that it is vital that we embrace those that compete, those that come to enjoy the show, and everyone in-between. That’s how you build community…

And with that said, let us move on to the next set of photos from this year’s Wekfest Los Angeles event…

It wouldn’t be an automotive event in Los Angeles without a slew of widebody exotics and there definitely was no shortage of them this year at Wekfest…

Daniel Song brought two cars to compete so he had a trusted friend drive his Nismo-themed R33 Skyline GTR…

The rest of Daniel Song’s teammates followed as they made their way into the show…

Hector Levario showed-up with some new additions to his AP2 S2000 this year. The car takes on a much more aggressive approach now with Voltex front, sides, and a dry carbon Voltex hood…

In front of Hector in the line-up was Steve Nakamura and his classically-styled AE86 Corolla…

The Group B Unlimited booth completed with Gene’s CR-X and John’s Civic as the bookends….

Goldy hasn’t changed much over the years as, I imagine, John prefers to keep the car looking this way to honor its history as one of Southern California’s revered Honda builds. The NC01 wheels add a modern touch but the Civic still very much breathes the golden era of West Coast Hondas…

On the other end was Gene’s newly-built Honda CR-X. It features some very modern touches but put together by Gene, who’s been building Hondas for decades now and friends like Kenji Sumino from GReddy who are rooted in the import automotive industry…

Donnie Cristobal’s K24-swapped Honda Civic sedan with MRacing mirrors, OEM JDM CTR grille, headlights, thin side moldings, Ferio Vi-RS decals, bronze Volk Racing CE28 wheels, and a First Molding-style lip…

The engine bay is nice and clean, resprayed in Taffeta White housing a K24A2 motor. Upgrades include a Kuya Fabrication tapered intake, Skunk2 intake manifold, 1320 Megaphone header, and Speedfactory tucked radiator set-up…

If you missed the Vlog episode I put together featuring this event and was wondering who won “Car of the Festival”, it was this 1982 Porsche 911 SC built by SV Auto and Ravi Dolwani from CSF Radiators. This was basically a no-brainer for us when it came to deciding the best of the best, seeing as how we got to see this car built from a bare metal shell to what it is now back in 2021 for its debut at the SEMA Show…

There is just so much to this build that I could probably write an entire article on it. But this build has gotten a ton of press and it would almost seem redundant to do so. Instead, I invite you to this article if you want to see this specs in-depth… CLICK HERE

Bernard has owned a variety of pretty impressive cars over the years but for Wekfest this year, he went with a very minimalistic Porsche 964 lowered on BBS E88 wheels…

Brand new Neptune Blue Toyota GR86 running Artisan Spirits front lip, side skirts, and 18-inch Desmond Regamaster EVO II wheels…

David Hour’s super clean FD3S RX-7 running the lesser-seen RE Amemiya AD Skirt II front lip, RE AD Step D-2 sideskirts, RE AD rear spats, rear diffuser, Ganador mirrors, and Blitz Type 03 wheels. This FD is one of those fine examples that less is more. No widebody kit, no cutting of any body panels, just a clean kit, good parts selection, and really good paint. The RX-7 also has Car Shop Glow tails, turn signal lights, and a number of OEM replacement pieces to refresh the car. Under the hood the 13B remains but with a Borg Warner turbo upgrade…

Hour actually ended the day with the “RX-7 of the Festival” award and much deservingly so…

Chris recently got rid of his S-chassis and jumped ship to Toyota in favor of a JZX90 Chaser Tourer V. The 1JZ-powered sedan looks to have a Vertex front lip, BN sides and Work XT7 wheels. I can’t really make out what the rear is but it looks like Vertex also?…

Matt’s DA Integra was hammered to the ground on Work Ewing wheels with a Password:JDM front lip, JDM headlights, JDM bumper pole and an OEM bra…

A B20B resides in the shaved and resprayed engine bay with a polished valve cover, full-sized radiator, polished exhaust heat shield and aluminum intake arm with velocity stack. You can tell how long Matt rides because the upper control arms are exposed at the top of the shock towers to prevent the arm was tapping the body…

A glimpse at the custom airbrushed c-pillar that runs to the entire roof. Also notice the JDM Gathers speakers in the rear deck…

Mono’s K-swapped Civic hatchback with Chargespeed front lip, PCI sides, Wilwood front brakes and 15-inch Volk TE37 wheels in blue…

The blue carries over into the engine bay with the recoated valve cover. The RBC intake manifold has been coated in black, paired with a K-Tuned throttle body and titanium intake arm…

The bright yellow vinyl-wrapped Lexus GX from 316 Autohaus on Work wheels…

Mercedes Benz W222 S560 from Supreme Society on 20-inch BBS Super RS…

Another look at Cavfie’s BNR32 Skyline. I like the exposed sections that show that the hood, front lip, and doors are all made from carbon fiber…

This Tesla Model 3 from Playedout was aired-out on BBS LM wheels wearing a carbon fiber lip kit…

The winner of longest-written spec sheet EVER was Ger and his turbocharged M&M Honda Hyper Wide Body S2000. I’ve seen his car many times before and am pretty familiar with it, so it was a bit unnecessary to list every nut and bolt, but I thoroughly appreciate the effort. Even had he not written all that stuff down, he still would have ultimately won the “Widebody of the Festival” award…

Sprite’s Tesla Model 3 on air suspension and Work Emotion wheels…

I actually first encountered this purple-wrapped Tesla Model 3 months ago when the owner stopped by RCompound USA to get some tires mounted on his Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels. It caught my eye cuz it flowed so well with the kit and wheels. He stopped by and chatted with us a bit while we were filming a vlog episode and all I remember was that he was one of the most soft-spoken nice guys ever, lol…

Lance Feliciano’s wingless Porsche 997 running a Cup front bumper, front lip, and gold BBS E88 wheels…

Robert from West Collective always has the best wheel set-ups for his Monte Carlo Blue NSX. Lately, he’s been running a double-staggered bronze Volk TE37 set-up with 16s up front and 17-inch rears…

Barely clearing the 16-inch fronts are a set of TAROX Compact 6-pot big brakes…

Joe Le’s beautiful Aston Martin V8 Vantage from West Collective sitting nicely on Volk Racing TE37SL…

T-no’s bagged 2JZ-GTE powered BMW E30 coupe with rare Taifun square headlights and grille, sitting on staggered SSR Longchamp wheels…

Chopped hood still with a hood bra installed which reveals the 2JZ set-up within…

EC’s Porsche 991 has some Japanese styling elements to it, especially with the SSR Professor TF1 wheels wrapped in Yokohama Advan Apex rubber…

Nice touch with the “Type 991” decal on the front lip to pay homage to the classic Spoon Type ONE decal…

This VeilSide Fortune Model NSX has gone through many different color iterations but its most recent look is this deep purple vinyl wrap paired with gold Volk TE37 Ultra…

Leon Casinos Comptech supercharged NSX running a Sorcery front bumper, Sorcery front fenders, Downforce rear fenders, custom APR rear wing, Vision Technica mirrors, Buddy Club brakes, and much more…

Absolutely loved this KA7 Legend wearing rare Admiration aero and 19-inch Work Napre Medusa Seraph wheels. For the “90s Car of the Festival” award, it really came down to Rob’s Legend and John Cruz’s Integra. They were both very specific to that era but we felt that John’s Integra edged it out because it was a purely 90s-era build that you would see here in the U.S., encompassing the pure style of that time period. Rob’s Legend had many parts that would have been impossible to acquire here though they were available in Japan during that time. In this instance, his Legend was too Japanese. People would have been mind-blown to see an Admiration kit here in the U.S. back then. But honestly, it could have gone either way. This thing is fantastic…

Rick Ishitani’s Hakosuka Skyline GTX from Team Sonkei Blue running Speedforme over-fenders and 17-inch Watanabe RS8 wheels…

Anthony’s silver NA2 NSX wearing a Marga Hills front, sides, hood, rear quarter panels, rear spats, MFR Engineering side splitters, MFR rear diffuser. Ganador mirrors, Voltex GT wing, and BBS LM wheels…

Dong Park’s FD RX7 with Shine FEED-style aero and AG SR8 wheels…

Dong Park also owns this Liberty Walk widebody NSX which shares the same 3-stage custom white silver metallic paint as his FD…

These custom one-off 3-piece wheels from RTG were actually designed to pay homage to the classic Racing Hart C2 wheel, complete with the threaded cap and dish…

Jovi La Victoria’s full Voltex Lancer Evolution MR has long been a staple within the Southern California tuning community. Good to see he’s still out and about supporting Wekfest…

Vern Lapuz’s Acura NSX wrapped in KPMF Iced Titanium Blue wrap with a BURN-UP front bumper, Marga Hills sides, Marga Hills front fenders, Taitec rear quarters, Taitec wing, Gruppe M rear valance, Craftsquare mirrors and much more…

DJ Inch’s Porsche 997 with GT3 RS front bumper/lip and BBS E88 wheels wrapped in Toyo R888R tires…

This silver Porsche 997 sat quite nicely on custom bronze Advan Racing TCIII wheels along with a GT3 RS front bumper, lip[, and rear wing…

Chente Lee’s Civic typically has an Air Walker front bumper on it but he’s decided to switch things up recently and has gone back to an OEM Zenki EK9 CTR look, replacing the fiberglass bumper for factory JDM Honda parts. I didn’t get a shot of the engine bay but it’s actually very clean with a K-swap as its new heart…

David Timoteo’s FA5 Civic SI features a JDM front/rear FD2 Type R conversion along with a FEEL’S Honda Twin Cam front lip, grille, hood, side skirts, and Rays Volk ZE40s…

David’s older brother Teddy went with a Mugen-theme for his AP2 S2000, running a Mugen front spoiler, carbon fiber hood, carbon hard top, and rear wing. He could have gone with some Mugen wheels to finish it off but opted instead to switch things up and run Volk CEs…

Tommy Ha continues his reign as the best S2000 in the building, essentially having the most complete ASM-themed S2000CR ever. He’s one of those examples that I spoke of in the beginning of the post but on the other end of the spectrum where they understand how to further a build without overdoing it. One of the more interesting things about having Tommy at a Wekfest event is that he actually used to be the main judge at Spocom, an event that is known to cater to those who compete under the traditional points-based system. He’s one of the most knowledgeable people to discuss this style of judging and guess where he brings his car to compete?…

Obviously he can’t bring his own car to Spocom to compete because it would be a bit biased but Tommy’s S2000 CR shines in any environment and would win at any car show because he understands style, flow, and execution…

On that note, that wraps-up Part 2! Still one more to come as we near the last Wekfest event of the summer in New Jersey. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!…